digitizemypatternLarge format pattern printing at true size
A pattern printed at true size can be laid on fabric and cut. There are three ways to get one: tile it across ordinary Letter sheets and tape them, send a file to a copy shop with a wide format plotter, or drive a plotter yourself. All three fail the same way, by printing at 97 per cent, so every route ends with the same check against a ruler.
Updated September 7, 2026 · digitizemypattern
Which route should you use?
It depends on how big the piece is and how often you will print it. Tiling is free and slow to assemble; a copy shop is fast and costs money per sheet; a plotter is only worth it in a room that prints markers regularly. The file is the same in every case.
Letter sheets and tape
Print the tiled PDF on any office printer, trim the margins, tape the sheets in order. Free, needs table space, and assembly error grows with the number of sheets.
Wide format plotter
Send the PDF or the DXF and collect one continuous sheet. Ask for no scaling and no fit to page, in writing, because fit to page is what most shops do by default.
Your own plotter
Feed the HPGL PLT straight to the machine. Pen-up and pen-down moves are clean, and internal lines go to the second pen so they are drawn rather than cut.
How do you know it printed at true size?
By measuring one printed thing whose size you already know, before touching the fabric. Print a single sheet, put a ruler on it and check a known distance. If it is short by a few per cent, the print dialogue scaled it, and every piece cut from that sheet will be short by the same few per cent.
The usual culprit is a print setting, not the file: fit to page, shrink oversized pages, scale to paper size. Turn all of them off and print at 100 per cent. A pattern that measures right on one sheet will measure right across forty.
What makes a tiled print assemble cleanly?
Discipline about margins and order. Trim two edges of every sheet rather than all four, so each sheet overlaps its neighbour along a known line. Tape on the back, work in rows, and lay the assembled sheet flat under weights before cutting, because tape shrinks slightly as it sets and a taped sheet left standing curls.
Rows, not patches
Assemble whole rows first, then join the rows. Assembling in patches distributes the error into the middle of the piece where it is hardest to see.
Against the original
If the pattern came from a paper piece you own, lay the print on top of it. The edges either match or they do not, and that is a better test than any measurement.
Keep the file, not the paper
Printed paper wears, tears and gets cut around. Print again from the file when you need it rather than storing an assembled sheet for a year.
What comes out of a photograph?
Three files for one piece: a Letter-tiled PDF for printing at home, a DXF on the AAMA and ASTM standard for CAD and cutting tables, and HPGL PLT for plotters. The size is fixed by the sheet of Letter paper in the photograph, so what prints is the size the piece actually was, not a guess from the height the phone was held at.
Questions about printing
Why did my printed pattern come out small?+
Almost always a print setting: fit to page, shrink oversized pages or scale to paper size. Set the scale to 100 per cent and print one sheet, then measure it before printing the rest.
Can a copy shop print the file?+
Yes. Give them the PDF, or the DXF if their plotter prefers it, and tell them explicitly no scaling and no fit to page. That instruction is the whole job.
What paper size do the tiles use?+
US Letter, because the same sheet is the scale reference in the photograph. Print on Letter and the tiles line up as intended.
Is a printed copy as accurate as the file?+
No, printing and taping add their own error, and it grows with the number of sheets. For cutting on a machine, use the DXF or the PLT and skip paper entirely.
Can I print a pattern bigger than the plotter roll?+
Not in one piece. Split it across two sheets and join them, or cut it on a table from the DXF, where the width limit is the table and not the paper.
Does the print include seam allowance?+
Only if the piece you photographed had it. Nothing is added: what lay on the table is what prints.
Keep reading
From a photograph to paper at true size.
Free while the demo runs. One photograph per piece.